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!