Merry Christmas!!

Hey everyone! Again, I must apologize for the millennium that has passed since my last update, and there's really no excuse besides the fact that the last thing I wanted to do at the end of a 10 hour day on my computer was spend another hour on my-- you guessed it!-- computer. My lack of communication, however, didn't change the fact that I was thinking of and praying for my loved ones back home often during the last semester of school. I just wanted to write a quick update and let everyone know that I have just graduated from the School of Biblical Studies in Taipei, Taiwan. I wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks for all of your prayers and support over the last 15 months through my Discipleship Training School, my time in Thailand, and finally, my School of Biblical Studies in Taiwan. I can quite honestly say that without so many people behind me, encouraging and praying for me, I never would have made it. God made incredibly huge provisions for me this year that got me from point A (hating reading the bible and totally missing the point of a relationship with God) to point B (loving the bible and coming away totally passionate about the Word and the God who wrote it). I made unforgettable friends and even found a new family in Taiwan, but I am very ready for the next amazing step God has for me.

My takeaways from the school are many- here are a few: I gained an incredible love and appreciation for God's word and the study of it, I got a better concept of who God is and that he never changes, and finally, I got a taste of what it is like to have an eternal perspective on life and, that in mind, am able to trust God with a freer, more open hand than ever before, and I only pray that he continues to grow that in me every day of my life to come.

I am now back safely in the states, had a wonderful pre-Christmas Christmas celebration with Mom, Dad, Katie, David and Ryan at Katie and Ryan's house on the Peninsula near Seattle, WA. It was so great to be back with my family once again, I missed them more than I could say while I was gone. I am now on the Eastside of Seattle getting settled into the place I will call home for a while (a long while, I hope). I welcome your continued prayers as I settle into this new time of life, as I move into my new place and as I search for a job. I have already had one job interview, at a Chinese Preschool in Redmond, but I'm not sure if that's the direction I want to go. As I am thinking and praying about what's next for me, I am trying to settle into something more permanent and challenging, hopefully with an emphasis in Chinese. (If you have any ideas, feel free to send them my way).

My music recommendation for Christmas this year is the Carpenter's Christmas album :) I hope that you all are having a blessed time with friends and family this Holiday season and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,

Anne

HALFWAY!!

It's crazy to think as I write this that I will be officially finished with SBS in less than 4 months (3 months and 27 days. But I'm not counting. I'm not!) This morning we wrote our test for the Pentateuch (The first 5 books of the bible... the big ones that Moses wrote). When I started studying (last night at 8:30pm), it seemed like a daunting task: preparing for an exam on 211 pages of text, complete with maps and character studies, but as I began to look back at the material, I just became more and more excited. Granted, it took me a while to get to this point. Have you ever noticed that the only time things sound like a good idea is either at midnight or later or the night before the test? All through college, I would always get my greatestinspiration for a song or decide to clean my sock drawer or whatever random project I would never otherwise do the night before the test. I had the same thing happen last night. I organized all my computer cords, did some troubleshooting on my wii, hooked up all my music equipment, ran some electronics errands I hadn't gotten around to in the last four months, and organized all of about 500 receipts I've been collecting for thelottery here in Taiwan. Then at about midnight I actually sat down to study. Maybe it's a plague of my generation... or maybe I just STILL hate to study, but I was dying laughing thinking about how ridiculous I'd just been. Anyway, God had grace and gave me an amazing ability to recall, because I am pretty sure I just aced that test. Grades aside though, since those REALLY don't matter to me, it is SO cool to know the bible. Everything we study makes me more excited for the next thing and gives me an incredible sense of being grateful that there's still more to study. And the awesome part? There will ALWAYS be more to study!

These last few weeks have really been a blur, we've been crazy busy trying to fit almost as much work into 4 weeks as we'd done all last semester. Suffice to say, I spent a lot of time at the coffeeshop hanging out with little Pei Yu doing a lot of studying. It is SO cool how SBS has opened up the Old Testament. What I originally thought was dry, boring, and outdated has turned out to have even more practical application than the New Testament. Numbers, considered to be the armpit of the Old Testament has been one of my favorite books thus far. One of my favorite things we've done is during Deuteronomy, which traces a theme of remembering what God has done for you, we tied little boxes around our heads with our favorite verses from Deuteronomy on them to help us remember for a day. I used this verse:

But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. (Deut 4:29-31)

I wore my box to the Rock that night, and these two girls who come to my guitar class every week asked me about it and I got to share with them the whole gospel... well... what I think was the gospel, it was all in Chinese and I was pretty flustered... Anyway, they're coming again tonight hoping to hear some more, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

I'll keep things pretty short this time because I'm just trying to meet a deadline with the book of Joshua and I'm meeting Paris (my friend I met at the Rock Coffeebar and went on vacation with to the South) for dinner before I teach guitar at the Rock tonight. I'll leave you with two really awesome things that happened to me the last two days that were really encouraging: Yesterday I was at my favorite Coffeeshop and PeiYu's dad and I were talking about his new menu and I said something about being a foreigner and he replied "Foreigner? You're not a foreigner! You have white skin, but you talk like us and you know our culture!" And then today, I was at the breakfast shop I go to every day and my Taiwanese roommate ran up and we started talking a million miles a minute in Chinese about the test, and as I'm paying for my breakfast, the boss says "Hey, your Chinese has really gotten way better." That had me on cloud nine because I've been feeling really discouraged about my Chinese lately, feeling as if it's gone by the wayside due to my SBS studies. So basically, with the test, the encouragement in Chinese, and an AWESOME lecture on Joshua by my good friend Charis, PLUS the brilliant blue sky outside, life is pretty nice here in Taiwan today.

Blessings to you all! Thank you for continuing to read!

Anne

Old Covenant, New Adventures

Hi All! As some of you might have guessed, we have started the Old Testament in SBS. Two weeks ago we did Genesis, which is one of my new favorites. I love how it is all about God pursuing his people, loving them, protecting them, providing for them, giving them a million chances, even though they're COMPLETE IDIOTS! Just like us. We have completed Genesis and Exodus and are ontoLeviticus, which I'm not too excited to chart... but I'm sure there's some great borderline-inappropriate jokes to be made, so I'm looking forward to that at least.

This will be a short update because, having come out of Revelation back to back with Genesis, back to back with Exodus... I probably don't need to tell you that I haven't done much besides work the last few weeks. Some highlights amidst the craziness of my studies would be hanging out at the coffeeshop with Pei Yu, my Taiwanese little sister, an all base pool-party, seeing

Eclipse in the Theater AND finding Burger King in the SAME DAY, meeting up with one of Lori (my roommate from Canada)'s friend from Czech Republic/Seattle downtown, and the various family nights we've had.

Pei Yu gets cuter every day. Lately she's taken to sitting on my lap while I'm talking on Skype and trying to talk over me in her precious broken 2-year-old-Chinese (sometimes we have the best talks since we're about the same level!!). She also loves to color on my charts. I've handed in a couple charts now that have her signature scribbles all over them because I wasn't

paying quite enough attention... but those are some of my favorite ones now. Today she had a pinwheel fan and was trying to blow on it, but her little lungs couldn't quite make it, so she eventually got bored and gave it to me. The cuteness continues. Actually in relation to the Pei Yu and the coffeeshop, I had a funny moment the other day when I was browsing the web and found the website for the coffeeshop, and it is covered with pictures of me! I was laughing so hard... mostly because

I didn't really remember ever getting my picture taken, but since I'm there every day for untold hours doing homework, I guess it makes sense.

The Taiwan YWAM base has a mandatory fun day every couple of months. (You may remember the GLOWING sunburn I got). This time, we had a pool party, complete with water olympics. For some reason (ask me privately (why) 4 of the 5 pools were out of commission, so about 100 people enjoyed hours of fun in 2 feet of water... Pictured above you can see my awesome Taiwanese-approved swim outfit and our team during the water Olympics.

Last week Lori and I went to downtown Taipei to study at Starbucks for the day with plans to later meet her friend Martin, who was from the Czech Republic but lived in Seattle for most of his adult life. He was quite the character, and we had a blast together. The evening ended on a bit of a ridiculous note, however, because he had left his backpacking gear in a locker (the reason he was in Taiwan was because he is traveling through Asia indefinitely, tired of corporate America) somewhere in the MRT station, but couldn't quite remember where. We walked through the entire Main Station, which is several miles of corridors, to finally realize that we'd made a wrong turn at the very beginning of our trek. But he found it and we ended up eating

Coldstone Ice Cream, so all ended well.

(Pictured to the Left: Mark and I at Burger King, a little too excited for our Whoppers)

Probably the most exciting thing that happened during the last few weeks (don't mock me... ok fine you can) is that I got to see the new Twilight movie, Eclipse, in the Theatre. Twice. That is the first time I've ever seen a movie in the theatre twice. It was a little excessive. But the first time I went it was with a big group of girls from SBS, and the second time it was with my Taiwanese friend Violet, my American friend Mark, and our Korean friend Andy, who, amusingly, is OBSESSED with Twilight. The capper for that being the best day in like, forever, was that on our way back to the MRT, we happened upon a Burger King, and I got a Whopper and fries, which was the most delicious thing I've had in... like, forever. Probably because Burger King is extremely nostalgic for me... but that's another story for another day. Violet had never had Burger King before, and did not quite understand my extreme excitement, but few people would, so it's ok. Needless to say, I got to treat her to a tiny taste of heaven, which she had the AUDACITY to compare to KFC. But, not being western, I suppose I will let her lack of taste distinguishing slide this time.

Lately family nights have been much smaller scale, likely because people are finally getting settled in, finding their way around, and developing friendships with Taiwanese. Two weeks ago we had a bonfire that never actually ended up burning on the beach, but turned into an awesome time for a chat. This beach in particular is always interesting to go to because it's a famous hangout for aging gay men, who often lounge around in the nude... so we're never quite sure what we're going to get, and often choose to come after dark just in case. Then last week, in honor of Exodus, we watched Prince of Egypt, but, of course, being huge Bible nerds now, we had to spend the whole time running a total of liberties Hollywood took. I fell asleep during the movie and never got a final tally, so I will have to pass on the challenge to YOU!

The number one mistake I found though was that Joseph did NOT knock the nose of the Sphinx off while playing in his chariot, Napoleon shot it off during target practice. So that's a freebee for you. Tomorrow we're having a Spaghetti feed at our house and playing Rock Band for the first time in ages, so I'll have to update more about that later.

(Pictured to the left: Violet and I at the Rock Cafe)

Before I sign off, I have one mildly entertaining story and I've read a couple really awesome books lately (aside from the Bible) that I would love to recommend: Captivating, the partner book of Wild at Heart by John and Stasi Eldredege, both of which I'd highly recommend despite excessive movie references, a few liberties taken in Bible interpretation, and cheesiness at time, it's been an awesome book in challenging me as a woman to view myself the way God created women to be viewed; and Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, which challenges it's reader to be a Christian radical in ordinary life... and how to have a "life" and still follow God. It's great. This week for guitar class, I learned a Chinese song called "I like you, no, Love." It's one of my favorites and it was really great to teach it! Anyway, I had recommended a few songs to some of the girls, including one called "Hey Soul Sister" by Train, a few weeks ago, and last night, one of my friends, Violet (the same one from the Twilight excursion), asks me what a "Soul Sister" was, so I explained. A few minutes later, I heard her go up to my friend and say "hey Soul Sister, how's it going?" Just imagine those words coming from that face in your head and it gets a lot funnier.

Blessings to you all,

Anne Joy Briggs

Finishing the semester, break at the beach, giant spiders and John

好久不见(Long time no see)!! I am so sorry it's been SO long since I've written, time just seems to escape me here (have no idea how THAT is happening). But life is nice on my side of the world. SBS has been going great, and I've been seeing God do amazing things here in Taiwan. I finished the first trimester of SBS... which at first was a huge struggle, and something I DEFINITELY could not have done on my own, but God has seriously done something miraculous in changing me so much in the last year. Anyone who knows me knows the idea of me sitting in a chair for twenty minutes- much less ten hours a day was plain ridiculous. But after a major attitude readjustment and some help from our AWESOME SBS staff, I was able to pull through, with an incredible excitement for the semester to come.

After our test, we had a weeklong break, and I went to Kenting and Kaohsiung (Taiwan's got to figure out how to use Pinyin better!!!) with my friend Paris and her mom Christine, who I've been spending quite a bit of time with, leading them in bible study and praying with Paris about doing DTS in the fall. I wish I had some pictures of her to share with you all, but she refuses to let me take any of her... so I will keep trying to sneak a good shot. We spent the week cliffdiving, snorkeling, skidooing, extreme inner tubing (at about 60 mph with helmets and

bodysuits), surfing, and sleeping on the white sandy beaches... it was a tough life! It was so great to spend a little bit of time back in the "real world" for a while. I so often take it for granted that I live in an amazing Christian community full of people who support me, hold me accountable, and are just... generally awesome in every way. My trip, short as it was, was an amazing reminder just to love every moment that I get to be here, because I know my time in YWAM is probably coming to an end after SBS (and possibly Titus... please partner with me in prayer about whether or not/where to do it). Being in a totally Chinese-speaking environment for six days gave me a lot of practice in language as well as a LOT of time to learn to be quiet and just listen... and when I got sick of just listening I would pray. While I was there, I had a minor crisis of faith, being out of the "YWAM environment" really for the first time since before I did my DTS, which ended up just strengthening my faith and making me really excited for the next part of my life, growing in my faith without needing to be fed from the outside on a daily basis- just Jesus and I. I took the fast train back on Friday being ready to come home and get some rest and play soccer, but unfortunately I missed the soccer game by just a few minutes (in an effort to avoid the physical changes SBS is bound to bring, I've been playing Soccer up at the university above the base). However, I got in a few games of pool and had a relaxing evening reading "The Irresistible Revolution," a book I would HIGHLY recommend... a book about living as an ordinary radical, about reforming the church, and about pursuing a non-hypocritical faith in God.

Last week we finished John, by far my favorite book this far, but also one of the biggest challenges, as fitting about 100 observations onto 22 charts in four days is not an easy task... During our lectures, I just about got scared to death by a spider the size of my face with visible fur climbing out of the wall about a foot away from my head. Thankfully, my friend Mark caught a picture of it for your enjoyment. One reason, text aside, that I loved John so much is the amount of work led to many long hours at my favorite coffee shop (see last blog entry). My friendship with Pei Yu, the owner's daughter, has grown much stronger the last few weeks, and the other day, she just came up and climbed up on my lap, where she sat for about an hour and a half while I worked on my homework. She shares her Cheerios with me, tells me ridiculous stories, and throws me invisible gifts and plays peekaboo with me from across the room. While I'm here (I'm actually writing from that very coffeeshop), I feel like I'm part of a family, and the things that we are studying in SBS come alive outside the text.

We will be finishing up the New Testament and jumping into Genesis within the next two weeks, a showing of God's faithfulness and also his continued challenges. I look forward to sharing and hearing more in the coming days and weeks, thank you all so much for caring enough to keep reading!

PS Please keep our family friend Karen, my DTS classmate Lindsey, and my elementary school friend Starla in your prayers this week... as they are all on long roads to recovery. Big blessings to you all!

Love,

Anne

WORLD CUP! .... oh yeah and Hebrews and some other stuff :)

This has been by far one of the best weeks so far in SBS. God's really been speaking to me lately about my priorities and where I am spending my time, so I decided to do a fast... of sorts. I stopped watching TV, using the internet, and fasted for a week. Incidentally, all this went on while we were doing Hebrews, one of my favorites prior to SBS, and definitely now my favorite... except maybe for Ephesians and Collosians... well so hard to decide!! I was very reluctant to do this fast at first because I never really saw much value in not eating or denying myself of anything to get closer to God, but for me, all of these things were about time- I was spending more time doing those things than I was spending in worship... not the singing and raising my hands type worship, but worshipping God by doing the things that I was passionate about... I've been so incredibly busy since SBS started that I'd fooled myself into thinking that I didn't have time to do the things I loved before SBS started. This week, I did art, wrote some songs, and had plenty of time to finish Hebrews in style. I also got to spend time with some new friends and catch up with some old friends back home.

THEN, last night I went to Eddy's Cantina, a local mexican restaurant/pub to watch the World Cup kickoff (soccer pun, couldn't resist) game. It was so crowded I couldn't even get in the door until halftime... and even then I ended up sitting on the floor. I think you can see my hair in the very corner of the picture :) In so many ways it was sooooo fun to be back in that environment, it almost felt like I was back in the Tamarack again. I never thought I'd miss the smell of beer and cigarettes in a bar!!! The next game is at 2:30 Am and a group of us will be going back there. It was also just super fun to be in a room full of people from all over the world. There were many South African fans there... and by midnight it was preeeeeety roudy!

And the final good cap of the week so far is that Jeanine and I, my SBS classmate from the DR made mexican food for the Ellis kids and watched a great movie. The food was delightful, the kids are awesome, as always, and my belly is full and my heart is sooooooo happy!

Coffee Mecca

Oooooooooooooh my! I'm not quite sure how almost another month has gone by since I last wrote, but I guess it makes sense, since I just turned in my 14th book!! SBS is getting more and more awesome as it goes along. Every day it gets a little easier to sit down and study, the other day I was at Starbucks for 10 hours without a break! As I think I mentioned in my last update, when I was walking back to my apartment at 4:30am after pulling an all-nighter to finish Mark back in April, I walked past an old "amah" (grandmother in Taiwanese) rolling out wrappers by hand all by herself in this little breakfast shop and felt like I was supposed to take some time and get to know her. I decided then and there that I was going to make a major life change (especially for me, a total night owl) and start getting up at 5am to come and study in this "amah's" shop. It's been over a month since then, and I can't even tell you how much it has changed the way I'm managing my time and the amount and quality of work I've been able to turn in. I've now tried just about every kind of Taiwanese breakfast I think (above is pictured "Youtiao" which is fried dough which is dipped in a sweet soymilk soup; one of my favorites), all of it handmade by my new adopted "amah."

I also think I wrote about Paris, my new friend I met at the Rock. I have been spending quite a bit of time with her and her mom the last few weeks, and we even plan to take a little trip together during our SBS break in June. I have been leading her mom in a bible study and we have been meeting with DTS staff about the possibility of Paris doing a DTS (Discipleship Training School, the six month school I did earlier this year that focuses on one's relationship with God and learning how to do ministry) in the fall. If you think of it, pray for her, as she is heavily considering it, and her mom would love to see her do it, but her Dad seems like a pretty rough guy and is definitely not fond of the idea.

Last week we had some mandatory fun at the beach for the YWAM base fun day. It was a total blast, I hadn't gotten so much exercise (or sun, for that matter- see photo) in a loooooong time. We had a girls rugby tournament (see photo, I'm at the bottom of the scrum), I got to go surfing, and then spent about two hours swimming.

Despite several applications of sunscreen, and multiple warnings that my friends needed some too, the SBS received a LOT of sun. One of the girls in my class got burned so bad I turned around to ask her a question a few days later, caught a glimpse of her glowing legs as I was turning, and was so surprised and started laughing so hard I completely forgot what I was going to ask in the first place.

Aside from that, life has pretty much been SBS, SBS, and more SBS. I've gotten to splice a little fun in every once in a while... a few games of pool here and there at the billiards club across the street from my apartment, some games of arcade basketball, and LOTs of exploring. I have stumbled across a market that is VERY old China, it spans through several tight alleys and closes at noon every day, so I have to go early, but it is very worth it, especially when I'm feeling homesick for China. Then yesterday, Zack Mills (my DTS classmate who I met up with in Thailand if you remember) met up for breakfast at Amah's and then went for a walk around Danshui and up to the gorgeous Catholic University about a mile away from our school. On the way back Zack saw a stairway and was like, I wonder where this leads? We climbed and climbed and finally found ourselves in a part of the city I'd never been before, and as we walked around we found a coffeeshop that looked very intriguing. We decided to check it out, and found ourselves in coffee heaven. I ended up talking to the shop owner for about a half hour about all the different kinds of coffee and all the places he got coffee from, the different roasts... etc (an challenging but very rewarding challenge for my Chinese). Zack and I ended up spending five hours there tasting, talking, and working on 1st Corinthians. We left having had four shots of delicious espresso and a Latte for under $3 US. I guess my sister Katie was right about Taiwan being the new coffee mecca! (See article: http://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2009/11/coffee-in-taiwan-who-knew.html). I plan to go back often, especially since I walk past my new favorite noodle shop on my way there!

My class, though very large at just over 50 students, has gotten really close really fast. I can already see how our class

would be at a major loss if anyone were to be missing, which unfortunately has happened~we've lost four students so far- two who decided to get married and two who felt God was calling them

back to Korea. We had a scare this week that one of our 17 year old students, Danny, a half Taiwanese, half Paraguayan kid who came from being a gang member on the streets of Taiwan to DTS and is now an SBS student was going to have to go back to Paraguay because of visa stuff, but the judge ruling over his probation personally went to the immigration office and explained the importance of his staying so he was granted a new visa. Also keep one of our other students, Zoie, in your prayers, as her step-mom has just undergone very serious surgery and her father just suffered a stroke and needs constant care. Since she is the only one who is available, she might have to leave the school to go take care of her father.

Teaching guitar class at the Rock has been great fun, it's always nice to have three hours on Friday nights when I'm required to have three hours without even thinking about homework. We have more students than guitars, which is always an awesome problem to have, but we are always trying to round up new guitars. I've also absolutely loved my work duty, as I've been babysitting for the Ellis family, recent transplants from YWAM Montana. Their kids are great and it's always so refreshing to go to their house every week, it's almost like being back in Montana for a little while!

Well, I should probably get back to color coding 2 Corinthians, but before I go, I have a HUGE thank you to everyone who has been supporting me during my time here in Taiwan, by a very generous gift, I am now able to pay for first semester's tuition!! Please keep in touch, I miss everyone very much, and while I've been very homesick during this time, God has been reveling to me how blessed I am and how thankful I should be that I have such an awesome home and such amazing people to miss back home. Thank you all for following my story! Blessings!

Parachutes and Turtle Races

The last few weeks have been so amazing... though it's great to done with seminar and all the craziness it brought (having class all day 5-6 days a week with homework on top of that), things haven't slowed down a bit. I can see that in a blink of an eye all this will be over. So far we've finished Titus, Philippians, Philemon, Mark, Luke, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Acts. Each one has become so much more than words on a page these last couple of months, looking at the history and going through God's word page by page is radically shaking my world view, the way I think about things, and the way I want to approach the rest of my life. Every day I wake up excited to see what God has for me, and I'm never disappointed.

Some cool blurbs about the last few weeks:

I took a trip to Hong Kong for my visa stuff (I will get my ARC resident card soon! I can't wait!!!!!!). It was so much fun. My roommate Lori put me in touch with her father's friend there, and he sent his domestic helper to pick me up at the airport, gave me a bed to sleep in at his house, and even had her bake me a cake! I had such a great time there, a far cry from what I expected it to be, as since I had gone alone, I had just planned to stay in the airport and catch a bus to the embassy. After I finished up my stuff at the embassy, his domestic helper gave me a tour around Hong Kong and then I was able to go with him to teach his kindergarten class! We all sang songs together, I got to take pictures with all the cute kids, and then I hopped on the bus back to the airport and arrived back in Taipei a few hours later.

We started our ministries; there were a bunch of choices but I chose to work at the Rock, the free coffeeshop on a busy shopping street near our classroom that YWAM runs. I really love that place (not just for the free coffee :)) ) because now every week I get three hours where I can just put all homework or any other stresses aside and just be there, talking to people, which is what I love. The first week I met a girl named Paris who is sixteen, she just dropped out of high school and came into the rock with purple hair, a lip ring, and tattoos... which to me doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, but I can't even imagine how her Taiwanese mother reacted. The two of us got to talking and I was able for the first time in my life (inspired by the book of Acts, which we were going through at the time) share the gospel and my testimony from a real and genuine place in my heart. From the moment I met this girl, God gave me such a huge heart for her, I felt like it was my responsibility to do everything I could to help protect and equip her for a world that would be really hard without God. I really encouraged her to do a Discipleship Training School (the six month school I completed with YWAM in January) and to get a solid foundation in her life, and the awesome part is she is now considering it. I was able to take her to church last Sunday and I also got to talk to her mom about YWAM and just my heart for Paris as well. It was such a cool experience, when we first met at the Rock three hours passed like a moment, and then after we'd been to church together last Sunday, she showed up to the guitar class I'm teaching at the Rock on Friday night. Oh. and did I mention that all this went down in CHINESE??? God has given me so many amazing opportunities to continue working with my language since I've been here, I really am seeing how creative He was in getting me here in the first place.

Last weekend I organized family night at the beach and we had a big bonfire, but instead of cooking, we were all able to just sit by the bonfire, talk and relax. This week, however, I'm taking on a big project: making marinara sauce from scratch. I'm not sure how it will go yet, but when God's hand is in things (though they may not work out as we'd hoped) they always work out as he plans.

Though I haven't had much time to play music, I snuck up to the roof a few days ago and took a long break from homework to write a song. Though the song isn't a million dollar maker, I am so thankful that I have music as an outlet, and I've decided that I'm going to start playing more often a priority because it was so refreshing to just be up there, singing at the top of my lungs.

The most exciting thing going on lately is that God's really been showing me how I can better manage my time so I can do my best in SBS while still having time for things like hanging out with Paris, playing music, and learning Chinese. One way he showed to me, though it seemed extreme at first, turned out to be one of the best things that's happened to me in a while. While I was walking home from McDonald's at 4:30 am after pulling an all-nighter trying to finish Mark, thinking that there was no way I'd make it through SBS like that, I walked past this little breakfast shop and saw the most precious grandma rolling out dough for the day's work. I felt God say that I should be there in the mornings keeping her company, so starting on Monday, I got up at 5am and took my homework to the breakfast shop and did homework for 3 hours before class started every day this week. I got to talk to the grandma a little bit more each day, the first day just being "good morning, how are you" the second, more of the same, the third "hey why are you here?" and I got to tell her about SBS and YWAM and on Friday, when I was telling her about the Rock, she said that she was going to send her son to take my guitar class. Also, halfway through the week her daughter would bring in her VERY fat and cute grandson who I've also been playing peekaboo with from across the room every morning since then. It's been so fun just building a relationship, being more disciplined, and having those extra few hours every day to finish my homework.

Yesterday, taking a much needed break from studying, I made a few funny videos with one of my classmates, one of us dropping an action figure with a plastic bag parachute off various rooftops, and one of my turtles racing in a corral we made for them out of our orientation packets! It was great to just forget about school for a while and have some fun. I'll be sure to post a link to the videos as soon as I'm finished editing them.

Anyway, I need to go to the market and buy thirty pounds of tomatoes for tonight! Thank you all for continuing to read and pray! Blessings!

And a long sigh, the first month of SBS is over!!!

Holy Bible, Batman! I can't believe it's already been a month... time has passed so quickly. And not necessarily because I've been having fun as much as I've been buried in the Book so far I can barely crawl out for air- meant in the best possible way. I'm totally loving SBS- the workload is a lot um... heavier than I have ever in my life experienced, but that is all part of this new experience! It is so great to be back in Taiwan, to be settled in my apartment with five great roommates, to have running water...

There have been a few periods of adjustment for us, our apartment being new there were some problems with the water for the first couple weeks, but after about the 80th time the neighbors from downstairs came up to cuss me out because their ceiling was leaking, all the leaks have been repaired and we have hot running water for showers now, which you never really appreciate until you haven't gotten a shower for over a week.

So far we have turned in Titus, Galatians, Ephesians, and Mark. We are using the inductive method to study the bible, which involves a minimum of five reads of each book. We first read the book aloud, then go through and color code the text according to 28 observation questions. After we color code, we re-read the text and pick out the main idea of each paragraph (called paragraph titles) and summarize it in four words or less that come directly from the text. Next, we write a few page history detailing the goings on in the world at the time the book was written so we can observe the Bible and chart it out as it was originally intended for the reader. After that, we make a horizontal outline of the book using our paragraph titles by picking out the key verse from the book, the one verse that sums up the whole book, then creating a title for the book, then creating points of main division in the book and titling them, then making smaller divisions and titling them. From the horizontal charts we can then make vertical charts which allow us to expand on the paragraph titles we had previously chosen and color code them according to what we observed in the second read through. From that, we can get more detailed in our observation, expanding on certain observations fro

m the perspective of the Original Reader and what the text would have meant for them and why it was important. After each observation we usually pick out some timeless truth about God that we can see illustrated in the text and write about how we can apply that to our lives. All of this gets put into our final application of the book which summarizes what we learned and what it means for us as Christians today. WHEW! I'm tired even thinking about all this (now imagine doing it for all 66 books of the Bible... in nine months...)

My two favorite parts are the color coding and the BRI (background info)... I think God knew there had to be some way he was going to keep me entertained, so he threw in the coloring for my artistic side, and... unbeknownst to me until a few weeks ago, God had been preparing me for SBS long before I ever would have considered it- through the computer game (with which I was obsessed through most of my childhood) Age of Empires, which put a very special love in my heart for the time period in which the Bible was written. As we're doing the BRI, I'm like, oh yeah him! and woah!! I remember imagining all about this place when I was a kid! and yeah! I bought silver from those people! Thanks, Ensemble Studios!

And though it's terribly hard for me to sit still, I've so enjoyed the lectures, especially those of Scott Contival and Don Gillman teaching Ephesians and Mark, respectively. Some things that have really stuck with me are "am I being a good steward with the gifts God has given me (especially the Gospel, God's greatest gift), or am I being selfish and letting excuses control my life?" and "you are never fully alive until you're already in a freefall with nothing left to grasp onto except for Jesus."

Family night continues to be a success, last week we had 33 people, a record both for family night and number of people I've ever cooked for in my life. Also, there's been a new addition to my family of pets, I have a baby turtle named Master Wu Gui who lives on my desk and helps distract me from my studies with his cuteness.

Well, my color code on Luke is calling my name, so I'll have to go for now, but please stay tuned for more, and your prayers for focus, direction and finances are always greatly appreciated. If you want to contact me with prayer requests of your own or just want to keep in touch, please send me an email, I love hearing from friends!

Back home in China and a new home in Taiwan

Hi all! Sorry it has been so long since my last update... a lot has been packed into a few short weeks. When you last heard from me I was getting ready to leave Thailand. I had an amazing last few days there, ending it all by making tacos from scratch for all my new friends at Step Ahead.

I decided to take one last full speed run into the ocean during my last sunset in Thailand, so we rode the motos down to the water. As we were situating our stuff, Derek says to me "hey is that jellyfish warning still going on?" I say "of course not! I've been swimming in here every day," as I turn to run into the water. As I'm swimming back to shore, I feel something touch my arm, I look down, and try to swim away, but too late, as a jellyfish the size of a basketball wrapped itself fully around both of my legs and stung. I was shocked at first and didn't know what to do, and then I kicked into gear, ran out of the water and started running up the beach to the hotel in front of me to find some medical attention. Thankfully, they were more than prepared, and had vinegar and some kind of plant smeared all over both my legs in no time. However, by the time we walked back to the truck, I had legitimate thunder thighs and when we reached the house, I could no longer fit into my pants. Thankfully the pharmacy had anti-swelling medicine and a few aspirin later, I was feeling good again. What a way to start out my twenty hour journey into China!!

The next morning I had all my stuff packed up and was ready to make the drive to Phuket, where I would get on a plane and fly to Malaysia for a 18 hour layover. Still pretty tender from my stings the day before, it was great to just sit and do nothing all day in the airport. When I finally arrived in Beijing, Aizhen, my best friend from Peking University in Beijing was there waiting for me. I had been a bit apprehensive about meeting each other again post-college, DTS, and whatnot, but thankfully, my prayers were answered and we picked up right where we left off... it was like I never left. The first night I was there we went out for Tsing Tao and Bbq, a daily staple of our days at PKU. My time there consisted of long days of reading, praying and pondering while Aizhen was working, and long, delicious meals with old friends at night. Twice we were even able to arrange it so the "fab four" (Aizhen, Demetrio, and Yang, my three best friends at University) could share meals again.

It was so amazing to be back in Beijing, so much had changed, but in another way, nothing had really changed... and it still felt like home. Aizhen introduced me to her roommate Templar's girlfriend, "Monkey," who had yet to find a job, so she spent a few days showing me some more unique places in Beijing to which I'd never been, such as a VERY nice vegetarian restaurant and the World Chocolate Park in the Olympic Village. She and I also went to see Avatar in 3-D. Too quickly though, my ten days in paradise came to an end and (after almost missing both of my flights) I arrived in Taiwan.

Things immediately were in hyper-drive as I prepared for SBS to start. I did have time, however, to meet up with some old friends, including Christine, a girl I met almost six years ago during my first trip to Taiwan... when it allllll began.

Classes started a little too quickly, but as incredibly busy and stressful these first few days have been, I can tell you here and now that it is ALL WORTH IT! We are just finishing up our first book of the semester, Galatians, which also happens to be one of my favorite books. What started out seeming like needless busy work has transformed into an understanding of the book, it's message, and it's history I have never before realized in many subsequent reads. God has been so good to me... bringing me in his own way to his own place. I have been told that for me, this is going to be both a time of extreme brokenness and a renewed, more pure joy, and I can already see that coming true. Never a student, I can see how this is going to break me down, so I will appreciate all the prayers you have to offer! However, I also see the joy coming... a close friend who has known me a long time told me the other day that he had not seen me this consistently just... happy for a long time, and it is really true. And I have only God to thank for that.

Aside from the new knowledge I'm gaining, my favorite part so far has been the people. We have an amazing school... the largest Taiwan has ever seen at about 85 including staff. Zack, Brandon (the guys from my DTS that came to visit in Khao Lak) and I have often been meeting up and talking about everything- God, life, and hopes and dreams for the future. A common topic of conversation between us has been community- due in large part to their recent 5 weeks with Benji as an "experiment in community" and some books we recently read in common such as Sex God by Rob Bell, Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, and In the Name of Jesus by Henry Nouwen, all of which I'd strongly recommend. All of this to say that we decided we were going to continue the experiment, and try to make this group of 85 people a "family" for the next nine months. The last night before SBS started, we got as many people together as possible and invited them over to my apartment where I cooked and we shared a long meal together, talking, laughing, and getting to know our new brothers and sisters. We agreed that we would do this every week, no matter what, and that we would try to have every single person from SBS over at least once during the nine months. This week we had another "family dinner" and had already doubled our numbers... cooking for so many people was quite a feat in our tiny kitchen, but it was again quite a success and I am already looking forward to next week's! (The pics on the right side are from this week's family night).

To Burma.... and Beyond!

After the boys left last week, things were pretty quiet, as usual I went to the Preschool in the mornings, took Thai lessons in the afternoons, and taught English in the evenings. Kim Quinley, one of the founders of Step Ahead and a close friend of my family's, came up for a quick visit on Thursday and we went out for pizza and beer and had a delightful conversation.

Saturday morning, however, brought a very interesting string of events. I was informed, much to my surprise, that we would be leaving for a camping trip for the weekend. So I loaded up my purse with water, my ipod, my camera, my bible, and my sunscreen, and we were off. I rode in the back of the truck to make sure our precariously stacked camping supplies didn't fly out the back, and we drove to Thaptawan village to pick up a group of teenage girls Meaw has been working with for the last five years. They all hopped in the back with me and we drove to a national park about an hour and a half away. It was gorgeous up there, we had gone from beach to rainforest in a short distance. The first order of business was setting up the tents. I set up ours, only later, much to my chagrin, to realize too late that I'd put it right on top of an anthill, and halfway through the night we were under full attack!

The next morning, we took the climb up to a famous waterfall. On the way, as Gai (one of the girls here) and I were passing a shallow river, I looked in the water and saw that it was literally teeming with fish. There were so many it seemed like I could actually just reach in and grab one, so I decided to try it. I asked Gai if it was safe to get in the water, and she said yes. So I stepped off the riverbank and into the water, only to suddenly have my leg sucked under water! I lost my footing and my other leg started sinking too, and, suddenly terrified, I realized I was in sinking sand. As I started to sink, I noticed a root sticking out of the river bank, and thankfully, after a big struggle, was able to pull myself out of the sand. I reached back into the sand to find my sandal, and miraculously, I did. After I'd collected myself a little, we continued on up to the waterfall... a gorgeous place that, for me, was very reminiscent of Glacier Park (with much nicer weather). While we were camping we ate white rice and tuna with tomato sauce (I had just white rice!) and tried to ration out our water, as we only had one 5 gallon jug for 13 people. While camping has never been a personal favorite of mine (at home, for me, camping means a bonfire and a tent in the backyard... and when the mosquitoes get bad you can go sleep in the house), but there were some really cool moments with the girls. Raised Buddhist, they are shockingly open to Christianity... thanks, likely, in large part to Maew's amazing influence over the last five years. A few of the girls even asked me to pray for them and share with them about Love, so that was a really neat opportunity for me.

Sunday evening we finally packed up the truck and headed home. I'd gotten a little too much sun over the weekend so I wrapped myself up in a sheet and looked quite ridiculous sitting in the back of the truck with all the girls. It was a fun ride, and I was very happy to get home, take a shower, and see the ocean again.

Monday brought another week at the preschool and my final week of English lessons-- or so I thought, until Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning, Maew was mysteriously absent from our morning prayer meetings, until I heard a raucous coming down the stairs and saw her with a big suitcase (Maew is getting married on the 18th and has been preparing to move to Holland with her husband after the wedding). Curious, I asked her what she was doing, and she replied with "I'm moving all my stuff back to my hometown. Did you want to go to Burma today? I'm leaving in 15 minutes." A bit flabbergasted, I told her I would need to think and pray about it a bit before I gave her an answer, so I went upstairs, got out my passport and started to pray. Feeling very certain I should go, I put some clothes, my sunscreen, my ipod and my bible in my backpack and we left. It's a long and windy road in the back of the truck, but I wasn't going to complain because I was grateful for a big block of time to read, as I was almost finished reading my bible. Two weeks ago I felt it very impressed upon my heart that I needed to read the bible cover to cover. It seemed like a very big task at the time, but as I continued to read, I became more and more fascinated, and the book truly came alive to me.

Just as I started reading Revelations, we arrived in Ranong, Meaw's hometown and border to Burma. As we entered the city limits, I felt like I was hit in the head by an 80lb brick. The spiritual atmosphere in the city was crazy... I felt so much oppression and immediately felt this inexplicable sense of depression and, something I've never really felt before, actual and immediate terror. Being pretty adventurous, and having travelled a lot by myself, I don't really get very scared when I have to do things by myself, but all of a sudden, the thought of being in this place and going into Burma completely terrified me. The girls decided to get lunch together before they dropped me off on the border, where I'd have to get on a boat and go down the river. As they said goodbye, I prayed hard as a man lead me down to a huge cluster of extremely questionable boats, handed me an umbrella to protect me from the sun and started the long process of untangling his boat from all the others. Soon enough, we were off, floating down the river to Burma.

I decided that there would be no better place to finish reading my Bible than right there, so I started reading. At 4:39 on February 23, 2010, at 21 years old, I finished reading my bible cover to cover in eleven days. Never really having been a reader, I can't really describe the feeling of accomplishment I felt... partly because it was by far the fattest book I'd ever read, and also because the Bible had always seemed so boring, old, and tired to me. I thought it was something for old people, or pastors, or whatever, but not for me. I was shocked, amazed, and fascinated though that I found something that spoke right to me in almost every book. When I got to Proverbs, then Galatians, then 1 and 2 Peter I felt like it was talking right to me, and I loved what it had to say.

After stopping several times along the way and praying that this random person taking my passport would, indeed, bring it back, I finally made it to the Burmese border. As I got off the boat, I was met by a hoard of men who could say "I love you, will you marry me," "America" and "Obama" in English... and had no problem practicing it on me. They were all reaching out and touching me, crowding around me, and I was just praying for protection the whole time I tried to dodge and swerve my way through them. I walked to the border office, gave them a crisp ten dollar bill, had my photo taken, then walked out of the office with a stamp and a 10 day Burmese visa. Having no desire whatsoever to stay in Burma, however, I wove my way through the "I love you's" back to the boat and jumped on, this time with several other men on board... their motives being somewhat questionable. We stopped along the river several times to drop people and packages off along the way and, in retrospect, I'm pretty positive that they were drug dealers. When we finally pulled back up to the dock at Ranong, I was so happy that I had arrived safely. After just one more marriage proposal, I had my renewed Thai visa and we were on our way.

That night, we stayed in Maew's parents' house in the village where she grew up. When we got there, I was instantly reminded of the village in Hunan province of China that I'd stayed at two winters before at about the same time. Conditions were almost exactly the same, minus the freezing cold, for which I was very grateful. Though my Thai isn't very good and none of them spoke English, I made quite a few friends, the grandma doted on me much like any grandparent, cracking my crab legs for me, feeding me until I about burst, the whole works. She also had a precious niece, she was about three and we were joined at the hip until we returned to Khao Lak. While we were in the village we made wedding preparations, picked out photo op spots, and went to an awesome morning market to have breakfast. Maew's niece rode in the back of the truck on my lap and then took me on a tour of the market... it was totally cute. The next day we finally packed up and decided to head back to Khao Lak. After a very long and hot trip back, we arrived just in time for me to teach my last English class and say goodbye to my students.

Since then I've been eating, drinking, and making merry... going to the beach as much as possible, and trying to soak up Thailand as best as I can in the next few days, as I just purchased my plane ticket for China, and will be leaving here on Friday morning. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more later!

The Famous Five

I just said goodbye to the self-titled group of travelers "The Famous Five," five guys from my Discipleship Training School in Montana that stayed in Asia after their outreach in Indonesia to "live life together and experience as much of Asia as possible on $10 a day." True to form, they hitchhiked to Khao Lak and I picked up this group of ragtag boys at a restaurant down the road. It was great to see them all, it's always fun to meet up with people from home when I'm abroad, and it was also to see how much God has changed them in the last few months. The boys were so great to have around... it was so refreshing to sit and talk about God for three hours at the dinner table.

They were here for five days, during which time we enjoyed many great talks, a ton of laughter, some great food, and some manual labor. I helped arrange for the boys to stay in beach side bungalows in the village where I work in the preschool. Having them here for so long was great because they all got to have a taste of what goes on here at Step Ahead. Despite the extreme heat, red ant bites, and millions of slivers we all got, my favorite thing we did together was chop down a bamboo forest to build shelters for the gardens the villagers are planting. It was so awesome to see the forest when we got there, pick up a machete, and start chopping. Then after we were done, we took the huge pile of bamboo in the back of the pickup truck to the work site.

The '65 Mustang

So here is my baby: a Canary Yellow 1965 Mustang Coupe. Not only is it a super sweet ride, it's close to my heart for many reasons. First, because rebuilding a car is something I always wanted to do with my Grandpa, Al Norris, but I didn't get the chance before he passed away. Though he wasn't physically there with me while I rebuilt my first car, I used many lessons he taught me along the way. Second, because I was about to graduate from college, move to Seattle, and start "real life" when this car came along. The prospect of rebuilding it lured me back to Montana. Being back in Montana, I made some amazingly strong Christians who befriended me, mentored me, and encouraged me to change my perspective on things. That, in turn, led me to doing a DTS, so without this yellow car, I wouldn't be sitting here, looking at the ocean in Thailand, ready to embark upon a school that will undoubtedly change me forever. Finally, because this is my first car- my dream car, and it is running totally as a result of my bare hands. Few people understand the exhilaration of driving 100 mph in a machine they put together with their bare hands.

Though I love this car, God gave it to me and I fully trust that if He wants me to sell my car to pay for my School of Biblical Studies, he will provide another, in a whole new set of circumstances.

Here are the specs:

A newly rebuilt Ford Crate 302 V8 Racing engine
An Edelbrock Carb
Completely new suspension kit
New filters
3 speed manual transmission
A new black leather interior
A brand new huge $1000 stereo system (Alpine Deck, Focal Speakers)
American Racing Rims (Silver)
New headlight switch
The color is canary yellow, but it is a ten foot paint job (it looks best from 10 feet away). The body is amazingly straight, no dents, but there are a few spots that need some rust control before they become problems. I also have a brand new set of all the rubber for sealing the car, but didn't install it yet because I was waiting until after I'd repainted the car (because I decided to do DTS last minute in September, I didn't have the chance to paint it). I also have a disc brake conversion kit (also uninstalled) that comes free with the car.

This car is loud (dual exhaust) and fast. A blast to drive, and turns a lot of heads. It's impossible to stop at a grocery store or gas station without someone coming to talk to me about my car, which is awesome for me because I love talking about it!

Please contact me if you are interested.

A Quick Catch-up

Greetings from the beach at Khao Lak, Thailand... it's a balmy 94 degrees and I'm finally settled in to my new home for the next six-eight weeks. I'll be working at a preschool for Sea Gypsy children here in Khao Lak in the mornings and teaching English classes with adults in the evenings with a Thai ministry called Step Ahead. I came here to catch up on rest and find peace and direction from God during a less busy time... This morning I visited the preschool where I will be teaching and was informed the only way to travel the 10+ kilometers is on the little motorcycle! YIKES!!! I'm doing my best to learn as much Thai as I can while I'm here, but I'd really appreciate your prayers that I could have a miraculous break- through with Thai like I did with Chinese... who knows, maybe I could be fluent in a month?? Wishful thinking, I know, but with prayer anything is possible!

How did I end up in Thailand? A quick review… God has blessed me more than I could possibly put into words. He's used a thousand awesome opportunities to bring me exactly to where I am right now. When I was somewhat less than satisfied with my life at a conservative Christian college in Spokane, he put me on a collision course with China, where I was able to spend a year at Beijing University becoming functionally fluent in the language (and at the same time falling completely head over heals for the nation). When I returned to finish college in Spokane He provided me with new friends and I had an awesome senior year. When I wasn't sure what my next step would be, He planted the seeds for a 1965 Ford Mustang and used that possibility to draw me back to Montana where I spent the summer working to pay for it and rebuilding it. While I was in Montana I met a girl named Jess who badgered me all summer about doing a Discipleship Training School. Since then I have thanked God every day she was so persistent, because when I finally decided to do DTS, my life was forever changed. I figured out first hand that- despite the many reservations I'd been holding since I was a young teen- God is real, alive, and loving. Those three things being fact, I spent the first three months of DTS learning about what that meant for me, Anne Briggs, a 21 year old, somewhat mischievous, college graduate in the year 2009, and how I would go forward from here. The last two months I spent with a team of 12 on outreach in Taiwan and China- living it out. I had many victories and struggles, but came out more sure than ever: God is REAL He is ALIVE and HE IS LOVE.

Outreach was full of many hilarious stories –to tell them with any fairness would take way too long for today. The most ground shaking revelation during outreach is how prone we are (I am) to making excuses. I found myself making the excuses about the dumbest things like "well, I can't do devotions because the website I like to read the bible on is blocked," when I had a perfectly fine bible sitting right next to me. Or I might say "I just can't get close to God because I keep getting interrupted" when if life is anything, it is one big interruption. There will always be things "in the way" and circumstances are never going to be perfect. True intimacy with God comes from taking ownership of your (my) life and living it for him. No. Matter. What. So that's what I'm trying to do.

Which leads me to what's next… and this step has been very clearly laid out for me: I am to go back to Taiwan and do a School of Biblical Studies, a course charting the entire Bible, (a course equivalent to four years of Seminary). It's extremely intense, but I cannot think of a better way to get "grounded." (Not to mention that I cannot wait to spend more time in a place I love, learning the language I love from people I love). One of the greatest hindrances I've seen in young Christians' walk with God is the tendency to get swayed or distracted from the truth due to a lack of grounding in the word of God. Never being much of a reader prior to DTS ,in the last six months I've been reading anything and everything I can get my hands on in an insatiable desire for more knowledge. The school starts March 23^rd, so instead of returning to the USA and incurring yet another international airfare, I decided to invest this time doing a season of volunteer service. I’ve wanted to visit Thailand for a long time, this opportunity presented itself and I went for it!

Because God has always provided for me, though my bank account is currently empty, I'm going ahead and doing the school completely believing He is somehow going to provide the way. I need $3,000 tuition for the school and approximately $1000/month for the next nine months – this will cover the costs of visas, travel, books, supplies, room and board. I don't know how he's going to do it, maybe you or someone you know would like to buy my canary yellow refurbished 1965 Mustang (I put it up for sale to pay for my DTS and God provided a scholarship and several donors which allowed me to keep it). Maybe as my mom was joking "I'll find a rare ruby on the beach this month," or just maybe He'll provide through people, as he has so often in the past. It is never easy to ask people for money. Yet money is only a part of the partnership equation – If I am to succeed with the School of Biblical Studies, I will also need people who will commit to pray for me. I know it is way beyond my scope of focus to study for 40-60 hours per week, so I’m trusting God WILL bring partners for this life chapter. Please let me know if you would be willing to partner with me.... as a financial investor in ME and the continuation of my Biblical education, and/or as a prayer partner. If you want to buy the Mustang or know someone who would, let me know soon – my request will be that whoever purchases it will pray for me every time the car is started this year!!!

I would be nowhere without the people God has put in my life! Thank you all so much for supporting me with prayer, finances and friendship. I’ll keep you posted as the great adventure continues.