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
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