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!
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