3/15 - 10:52 PM
Ahhh it's been such a looooooooong day! And I haven't even covered what happened in the past two days yet either! Well, first things first. We arrived at Miaoli without any major problems, and met up with Minister Yang of the Tou Wu church that we would be helping. One of the first things I noticed as he drove us to the church was the abundance of Buddhist temples in the area. At one point, I think I saw 3 within a block of each other! Tou Wu Church, on the other hand, is the only Christian church in the entire town. We're not afraid though. God doesn't need more churches than temples in order to do His work, just willing hearts and hands to do it. We met some of the other people who were also living and serving at the church: Robert and Coleen (?), and Auntie Lee, in addition to Minister Yang's family (his wife and 6-year old daughter). The town has many buildings in a crowded sort of way, but is overall on the small side and not very busy. The church itself is situated next to an elementary school, and is also within walking distance of a junior high school. We settled in, took some time to make some plans and practice a couple things, and did a little exploration of the surrounding area.

The next day, we woke up early and had breakfast at Burger Master (Taiwan's Burger King equivalent I suppose, but healthier! really!). After breakfast, we proceeded to have a small worship seesion and Bible study, led by Minister Yang. I was quite surprised and encouraged to realize that the restaurant supported Christianity, and visibly so, with Christian music playing from the speakers and various Christian literature on the shelves. :D We returned to the church, where we attended a small Bible study class covering married relationships and the important things to recognize about them. Not really something I need to worry about in the immediate future, but it never hurts to know more about this sort of thing, right? And I'd rather know before I need to know it, rather than after.

After lunch, we went to various schools in the area with Minister Yang, meeting with principals of the schools in order to tell them about the youth camp that we were arranging in the next couple of days. Do note, this is something that one could never do (legally) in the US. In Taiwan, however, it is thankfully an acceptable thing to evangelize to students and share religious information freely in the schools. The two principals we did meet with were open to telling their students about our youth camp, and we looked forward to having some of them register (and attend). We also talked to Jerry, a baseball coach at the nearby junior high school who also knows Minister Yang and is a Christian. He told us about some things we could arrange in the near future, like meeting the baseball team and getting to know them better and share stories with them. Well, when God opens a door, we should walk through it, right? :) After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening preparing things for the youth camp, like making a big poster with a collage-style tree on it, as well as practicing parts of one of the skits we will be doing later on in the week.

More updates to come later! I have to sleep so I don't be all zombie-ish tomorrow. Here is a small summary of what happened today though (I will add more detail later on):
- More Burger Master and Bible study
- A visit to the headquarters of a famous tea company
- Visiting and meeting one of the baseball teams, helping with training
- found out that no one registered for youth camp
- Worshiping on the street
- Changing of plans and seeking God's will by praying and praising
- Meeting and talking to the second baseball team
- Meeting a teacher and arranging a time to meet and share with students in her class on the next day
- Listening to Jerry's sharing

3/12 - 6:58 AM

Hello Taiwan! I'm currently sitting in the boarding area for our transfer flight over to Kaohsiung. Just one more hour or so, and we'll be done with the flying portion of the trip (at least, until the return flight, that is). The flight itself went quite well; it was my first time going on a 13 hour and 20 minute flight, but I'm glad that it went smoothly, and since the plane was so empty, Alvin and I were able to relocate to a more comfortable area with additional legroom. Thank God! I was also a little worried about our team's health conditions. Apparently 4 of us are suffering from various ailments, from runny noses, upset stomachs, and a painfully throbbing foot (me). It was actually getting pretty bad right before Alvin and I boarded the SFO to Taipei flight, so we sat down and asked God for healing and protection over our whole team. As we prayed, I honestly felt the pain in my foot diminish suddenly and significantly. Thank you God! :) I hope the others will be feeling better soon as well. Please pray for us!

Anyways, back to the flight. As an added bonus of being able to move around, we got to sit right in front of a big projector screen for the movies. Unfortunately, the quality of the projector screen left a lot to be desired. (Side note: I want to rent and watch Tangled when I get back, the parts of it I saw on the plane were quite enjoyable :D Maybe I will make it a group thing at my place, if enough people are interested) I tried to get a lot of sleep on the flight too, so as to counter the effects of jet lag. I ended up waking up around 3:30 AM this morning (Taiwan time)... I guess that's okay. I know someone back in California who wakes up that early!

I am looking forward to Herman and Claire's wedding in a few hours. I hope I will have enough time to get appropriately dressed; I'm currently wearing sweatpants and a loose grayish long-sleeve shirt. Not exactly wedding attire, in the slightest! But more importantly than that, I hope I'll be able to memorize all the lyrics for the songs we'll be singing for them :D

3/13 - 1:53 PM
Green. So much green. Taiwan really is a beautiful place. Or perhaps I'm just easily impressed. We're currently riding a train from Tainan to Miaoli, and we are travelling through miles of open farmland, where I'm guessing (wildly) that they are growing rice, as the fields are half-submerged in water. Miaoli is next to Tou Wu, where the actual "missions" content of our missions trip will be taking place. It's going to be a little over 2 hours of train riding, but that's okay because it gives me a chance to update everyone :) To be honest, I would have preferred spending this time fellowshipping with my other team members more, but due to the crowdedness of the train and the fact that we need to watch our luggage means that only a few of us can sit together. Doh. In any case, I will try to make the most of the time I have.

After arriving in Kaohsiung by plane yesterday, Alvin and I passed through customs to make our way outside, where Alvin's relatives would come to pick us up. I got my very first stamp in my passport! Yes, yes, I know, not that big a deal, but it's the little things in life that make it interesting, no? We then changed for the wedding, got picked up, and arrived at the church. The church itself was a nice little place (for more details, see my facebook pics), and it was good to see other people there that I already knew, like Herman and Claire (obviously), Vovo, Ivy, Ali and Ovi, and the others in the missions team. The ceremony was quite short, lasting only 45 minutes or so, and the singing performance that some of us had been asked to do went smoothly. I'm really glad that there were about 8 people in the group, because I was having trouble remembering all those Chinese lyrics, and seeing them on the screen didn't help much either, what with me being mostly Chinese illiterate. Perhaps one day, I'll make it a point to change that. After the ceremony, we all got on a party bus and headed over to a hotel in Kaohsiung, where the lunch reception was being held. As expected, there was PLENTY of food, and all of it was prepared very well. So good, in fact, that I ended up taking a good bite out of my lip, in the exact same spot I had accidentally bit it a couple days ago. OW. In addition to the pain, I also missed out on enjoying more of these crispy ball-shaped pastry-ish things that had sesame seeds on top and a filling that was slightly sweet but blended with the slightly salty crispy exterior. Oh gosh I wish I had one right now.

After the reception, a bunch of us went walking around in Kaohsiung to sightsee. Unfortunately, aside from the "I Love River" which, while scenic, smelled like anything but, there wasn't too much else to see in Kaohsiung on a Saturday afternoon. We decided instead to head over to Tainan a little early and walked over to the train station. I have to say, the train was quite nice, with seats having built-in footrests, a LARGE lean-back angle, and swiveling banks of chairs so that one could choose to create a more social environment if they desired. They even sell snacks on the train. Again, not a big deal, but it's quite a pleasant change, and nifty. Caltrain could really benefit by taking some cues from Taiwanese train design.

When we got to Tainan, we took a taxi to Ann's relative's place (Michael). Michael and his family were very kind to welcome us in and give us a place to stay for the night, and I pray for blessings upon them for their hospitality. They also have a very cute daughter who, while shy at first, later opened up to us. :) I guess I have a soft spot for kids :P After we settled in a little, Michael drove us around Tainan to sample a number of really delicious foods in the area. I took pictures of every place and dish (something I'm trying to do for the entire trip, see facebook albums). It was SO GOOD. My one regret is that he didn't know of any place to get a really good home-made mei-jing. (the plum stuff. haha) After we filled up, he dropped us off at a big night market area. There were tons of people, but our group managed to stick together. As expected, there were plenty of booths with all sorts of things, from games to hats to clothes, etc. I picked up some leather sandals for 450 NT. I wanted to haggle the price down a bit, but I didn't feel fluent enough in Chinese to really do so effectively, plus 450 NT for a nice pair of sandals didn't seem like a bad deal.

When we finally got back to Michael's place, we were exhausted. I took a moment to talk to Ann and Alvin about our group dynamics, something I had been growing increasingly concerned about over the past few weeks. They listened and we talked about it, and then prayed to God for His blessing and guidance. I hope things will improve in the very-near future.

This morning (the 13th), we woke up early to a traditional Taiwanese breakfast, courtesy of Michael and family. They picked up some sort of vegetarian sticky rice with peanut powder and soy paste, along with miso soup. Yum :) We then went to a nearby church that Michael's family attends. I tried to pay attention, but sadly, most of the vocabulary used in the message was over my head :( I later learned that it was about the kids in Vietnam who had been born with severe physical abnormalities due to the chemical agents (agent orange, I believe) used in the Vietnam war. We took a more scenic route back to Michael's place, passing through a playground with 2 disabled tanks (yes, TANKS.). I have to admit, the sight had a very distinctive contrast to it.

Back at Michael's, we packed up our things (sorry Michael and family! I had some cookies in my backpack that some ants delightedly stumbled upon, and they apparently notified their friends with great haste. They told me not to worry about it, since ants were all over the place anyways, but I still felt bad about causing a minor infestation. And losing the cookies.) We went to lunch and met Ann's ... grandparents? other relatives at least. My understanding of the Chinese language really needs to get better. Sigh. They were very kind and treated us to lots of good food. We then left for the train station to catch the afternoon train to Miaoli. WHEW. Okay, I think that going forward, I will refrain from putting so much detail into these logs (sorry to those who like it). I just don't think I will have the time to keep updating regularly at this level of output. In any case, I will try to focus on the major events, God's teaching and leading, and prayer requests. Thanks everyone for your support!